Local broadcasters to be inducted into hall of fame

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Local broadcasters Ed Crook, Curtis Fong and Bill Kingman will be inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame on Aug. 18.

Radio station KTHO will host an open house at its station, located at 1001 Heavenly Village Way, Suite 36A, on Friday, Aug. 10, from 4-7 p.m. in their honor.

According to KTHO senior vice president and general manager Paul Middlebrook, Kingman has been in the Tahoe radio market for 51 years, Crook for 30 and Fong for 35.

Crook has more than 50 years of broadcasting experience. During his career, he was owner of Sierra communications in Stateline, Nev., and helped with station start-ups and FM translators in Nevada, according to a press release. In 2001, he was asked to help KTHO get back on the after the station was silent for nearly a year. He served as general manager of the station until the owner sold it in 2009. Crook currently serves as the director of operations for KTHO.

Fong, aka "The Guy from Tahoe," does a daily snow and resort report during the winter for stations in northern Nevada and California. He also provided live reports from the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games. Fong has been a member of the North American Snowsports Journalistst Association for more than 20 years and currently serves as the vice president of the western region. Fong is also the chief executive and event director for TGFT Productions/Bike the West and has produced cycling events in the region.

Kingman took a job at KOWL at Tahoe Harrah's in Stateline, Nev., in 1961 and has since been a disc jockey and chief engineer at every Lake Tahoe station, in addition to freelancing at Reno and Carson City stations. According to a press release, he aims to provide what he calls "useful broadcasting," which includes reporting on community information such as a snow-day school closings, highway conditions, power outages, last-minute cancellations and lost and found. King has helped report on major events in Tahoe, including the bombing of Harveys in 1980 and broken pipelines in 1986 and 1987, as well as announcing the Lights on the Lake Fireworks each year.